Advancing a Social Science Research Agenda IN and OF Aquaculture AquaNet IV 1922 October 2004

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Advancing a Social Science Research Agenda IN
(and OF) AquacultureAquaNet IV19-22 October
2004

• Dr. Susan C. Stonich
• Professor
• Environmental Studies Program
• Department of Anthropology
• Department of Geography
• Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Marine
  Science
• University of California - Santa Barbara

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Presentation Outline

• Introduction
• Gaps and opportunities for the social sciences
  in aquaculture
• The aquaculture science-management complex
• The development of a social science research
  agenda
• Some suggested areas of inquiry
• Theoretical and methodological frameworks

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Introduction My Perspective

• Interdisciplinary background and experience.
• US NAS/NRC Human Dimensions of Global Change
  Committee.
• NRC Panel on New Research on Population and
  Environment.
• Advisor NSERC, NSF, USAID.....
• Multiple academic appointments.
• Walking the fine line between theory and practice
  and between being an academic and an advocate.
• Chair of Environmental Studies one of only 5
  of ES programs that integrate humanities, social
  sciences, biological sciences, and physical
  sciences.

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Advancing a Social Science Research Agenda in
Aquaculture4 Suggested Areas of Inquiry

• Human Dimensions of Global Change
• Multiple-party (multi-stakeholder) perceptions of
  risk
• Food security
• Community participation

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Human Dimensions of Global Change in
Aquatic/coastal Systems

• Human dimensions include
• Driving forces
• Impacts
• Responses, risks, decisions
• To date most research attention has been on
  human-natural systems interactions in terrestrial
  ecosystems
• Most research based on science first rather
  than society first or policy first research
  approaches.

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Multi-party (multi-stakeholder) perceptions of
risk

• Mainstream risk assessment does not adequately
  take into account multi-party perceptions of risk
  beyond stakeholder analysis.
• Yet current research demonstrates significant
  diversity regarding perceptions of risk by
  ethnicity, class, gender, age, race, etc..
• Opportunity for social scientists to make
  considerable contributions in this area.
• Terre Satterfield (UBC) is an expert in this area
  both theoretically and in terms of policy.

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Food Security

• Introduction
• The concept of Food Security
• Food security and aquaculture - trends and issues
• What lessons can we learn from agriculture -
  especially the Green Revolution and the
  commercialization of agriculture?
• Recommendations for research and policy

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What Do We Know about the Effects of Development
on Food Security?

• Agricultural Development a great deal.
• Especially about the commercialization of
  agriculture and why small farmers in the
  developing world have not participated
  successfully in development.
• Aquacultural Development Not much.
• Although serious questions have been raised.
• Tourism Development Almost nothing.

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Introduction - why this focus?

• Naïve statements by international agencies,
  donors, and industry about the ability of
  aquaculture to counter the declines in capture
  fisheries.
• Unsubstantiated statements that aquaculture will
  contribute to increased food security -
  especially for the poor in developing countries.
• Almost complete emphasis on the impacts of
  aquaculture on food security at high levels of
  aggregation - e.g., the global and the national
  levels.
• Few systematic analyses of the differential
  impacts of aquaculture on food security at the
  local and household levels, of cross-scale
  linkages, and for the poor and other vulnerable
  groups.
• Little learning across sectors.

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Many Definitions of Food Security

• Secure access to enough food at all times
  (Maxwell and Frankenberger, UN Childrens Fund
  and International Fund for Agricultural
  Development, 1992).
• Food security exists when all people, at all
  times, have physical and economic access to
  sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet
  their dietary needs and food preferences for an
  active and healthy life. (World Food Summit,
  1996).

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What is Food Security? (4 Dimensions)

• Ensuring that the necessary foodstuffs are
  produced / or accessed through earned income
  (purchasing power)
• Ensuring that their supply is stable (sustainable
  over time)
• Ensuring that the entire population has access to
  them (distribution)
• Ensuring that the food supply is safe (food
  safety).

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Food Security IS NOT THE SAME as Self
Sufficiency
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Food Security is a Multi-scale (multi-level)
phenomenon with significant cross-scale linkages

• Global food security
• Regional food security
• National food security
• Local / community food security
• Household food security
• Individual (within household) food security

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Food Security is a Multidimensional Phenomenon at
all Scales (Levels) E.g., Food Security at the
National Level

• Some external factors affecting food security
• History (e.g., conquest, colonization, and
  post-colonial period)
• Recent period of globalization
• Macroeconomic factors such as terms of trade,
  balance of payments, debt, etc.
• Foreign investment
• Some internal factors affecting food security
• Agricultural, aquacultural, and other resource
  potential
• Distribution of wealth and resources
• Government policies (exports, subsidies, credit,
  pricing, research and extension, etc.)
• Human population dynamics
• Sustainability of food producing ecologies

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Some Recent Production Trends

• Asia accounts for about 90 of global aquaculture
  production (China alone accounts for more than
  2/3).
• North America, Europe, and Japan together produce
  less than 10 but consume most of the farmed
  seafood that is traded internationally.
• Outside of China the growth in aquaculture is in
  the production of high value, carnivorous
  species, - even in China there has been a
  significant effort to expand production of these
  species for export in the world market (New
  2000).
• A few countries dominate production in regions
  outside Asia usually with the production of one
  species (New 2000).
• Ecuador with the production of shrimp
• Chile with the production of salmonids
• These are countries without a history/tradition
  of aquaculture and in which consumption of
  seafood is quite low compared to Asia.

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Challenges to Enhancing Food Security through
Aquaculture (Naylor et al., Nature,2000)

• Conclude that in some cases aquaculture may
  actually reduce fish supplies for human
  consumption due to the emphasis on farming
  high-value, carnivorous species the use of fish
  meal and fish out in commercial feeds habitat
  destruction collection of wild seed stocks etc.
• Recommend 4 goals for sustainable aquaculture
• Expand farming of low trophic level species
• Reduce the use of fish meal and fish oil inputs
  in feed
• Develop integrated farming systems (polyculture,
  mixed agricultural/aquacultural systems)
• Promote environmentally sound aquaculture and
  resource management.

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Additional Goals

• Access for poor consumers and small-scale
  producers (Williams et al, Nature,Reply to
  Naylor et al., 2000).
• International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources
  Management (ICLARM) has been engaged in such
  efforts for several years.
• Ensure that aquacultural development contribute
  to food security and nutritional status for the
  poor in developing countries (Stonich 2000).
• This will require more than increasing production
  through science and technology, finding ways for
  the poor to become fish farmers, and/or providing
  assistance to establish profitable
  micro-enterprises.
• Much can be learned from decades of research on
  food security related to agricultural development.

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What Can We Learn from the Agricultural Sector?
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The Effects of Agricultural Development on Food
Security and Nutritional Status at the Local,
Household, Individual Levels

• Increases in production do not necessarily lead
  to increases in food security and nutritional
  status.
• Increased income does not translate directly (or
  necessarily) into improvements.
• Schemes which protect/stabilize subsistence
  production are more likely to have positive
  effects.
• Policies and programs that advantage the most
  vulnerable groups are the most likely to provide
  positive benefits.
• Impacts are mixed - Intervening factors (e.g.,
  control of production and income, allocation of
  household labor, maintenance of subsistence
  production, land tenure, pricing policies, etc.)
  are more important than crop choice.

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Aquaculture and Food SecurityCurrent Trends

• Aquaculture is a diverse enterprise - more than
  200 species are cultivated using a myriad of
  production technologies, within an unknown number
  of institutional contexts.
• The effects of any nexus of species, production
  technology, and institutional context are likely
  to have different impacts on food security - at
  different scales.
• Aquacultural production of low value, herbivorous
  / omniverous species likely does have a higher
  likelihood of contributing to food security in
  developing countries.
• The promotion and expansion of production of high
  value carnivorous species - using highly
  capitalized production technologies and
  environmentally risky methods are much more
  problematic
• demand much more study and analysis
• especially in Low Income Food Deficit Countries
  (LIFDC) like Ecuador, Honduras, India,
  Philippines, and others.

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Policies as alternative strategies to achieve a
goal
Value A
Policy A
GOAL / OBJECTIVE
Policy B
Value B
. . .
. . .
Value N
Policy N
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Example Policies to enhance food security in
poor rural communities in Latin America
World Bank / Capitalism / Free Trade, etc.
Green and Green Gene Revolution
Enhance food security
Alternative / Organic Agriculture
Cuba
. . .
. . .
Community Based NGOs
Community Empowerment / Agriculture part
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Integrating Development and Environment
Integrated Conservation Development ICDPs.
Participatory Development..
Sustainable Development
Ecodevelopment
Basic Needs Approaches.
Dependency Perspectives on Development..
Development as Economic Growth..
1950
1940
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
UN Conference on the Human Environment 1972
UNCED (Rio Summit) 1992
UN World Summit on Sustainable
Development 2002
UN Breton Woods Institutions established
World Conservation Strategy 1980
WWF Wildlands Human Needs 1980
UN World Commission on Env Dev. (Bruntland) 1987
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Participatory Development Including Integrated
Community Conservation and Development Projects
(ICDPs)

• What is participation?
• An active process by which beneficiary or client
  groups influence the direction and execution of a
  development project with a view to enhancing
  their well-being in terms of income, personal
  goals, self reliance, or other values they
  cherish (Parish 1987).
• The organized efforts to increase control over
  resources and regulative institutions in given
  social situations on the part of groups and
  movements of those hitherto excluded from such
  control Pearse and Stiefel).

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Two Main Dimensions of Participation

• PARTICIPATION AS A GOAL IN ITSELF allows
  communities to have greater control over their
  lives.
• PARTICIPATION AS A MEANS achieving improved
  cultural, social, economic, and / or
  environmental objectives (e.g., cultural
  revitalization, jobs, food security,
  sanitation,)

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Critical elements of local participation based on
experience in agricultural development and
protected areas

• Who participates / what is community?
• Means for conflict resolution.
• Sharing in the conceptualization, definition, and
  framing of a problem.
• Consider the wider political and institutional
  context (political ecology).
• Local empowerment (follow the money).
• Including community in design, implementation,
  monitoring and evaluation.
• Importance of local organizations.
• The economics of participation.

(Stonich 2000)
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Development of a Social Science Research Agenda
Theoretical and Methodological Frameworks

• Learn from other sectors and experiences
  Agriculture, tourism, protected areas,..
• Sustainability Science.
• Augmenting science first with society first
  and policy first research approaches.
• Combine science as is versus participatory
  research strategies.
• Push for more training, funding, and jobs for
  interdisciplinary research and training.

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Sustainability Science A New Paradigm for
Action?(Initiative on Science and Technology for
Sustainability)lthttp//sustsci.harvard.edugt
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Sustainability Science

• Ultimate Goal Meeting fundamental needs while
  preserving the life-support systems of planet
  earth.
• Objective promote a sustainability transition.
• Response to the estrangement of the science and
  technology community from the preponderantly
  social and political processes that were shaping
  the sustainable development agenda during the
  1980s and 1990s.
• Methodology Promote interdisciplinary
  research/policy that integrate social and
  biophysical sciences.
• Emerged from international scientific programs
  (e.g., International Human Dimensions Program),
  scientific academies (e.g., National Academies of
  Sciences), and independent interdisciplinary
  networks of scholars.

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Core Questions

• SS seeks to understand the fundamental character
  of interactions between nature and society.
• Encompasses the interaction of global processes
  with the social and ecological characteristics of
  particular places and sectors.
• Regional character of SS gt key processes across a
  wide range of scales from local to global.
• Advance understanding of the behavior of complex
  systems as well as the driving forces/responses
  of human/environmental systems to multiple and
  interacting stresses.

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Sustainability Science Within a Divided World
North Old, rich Millions affluence global
people Causes of climate change Technological
knowledge Theory-driven research
Global Issues
South Young, poor Billions poverty local
people Impacts of climate change Traditional/loca
l knowledge Action-driven research
Digital divide
Local Issues
Source Kates et al, 2000
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SS views Coupled Human-Natural Systems (e.g.,
Moran and Ojima 2004)
 

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Sustainability Science Framework
Source Turner et al., 2003
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Sacred EcologiesLevels of Analysis in
Traditional Knowledge and Management Systems
Worldview
Social Institutions
Resource management regimes
Local Knowledge
Source Berkes 2000
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Integrative approach to evaluating the effects of
external shocks on livelihood security,
health/food security and environmental security.
Shock (Natural or Human induced) Development Con
servation Climate change Weather Disaster War
Health Food Security (Vulnerability)
Livelihood Security (Vulnerability)
Environmental Security (Vulnerability)
Social, cultural, institutional,
demographic context
Source Stonich 2002
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Next Steps Sustainability Science Needs to Move
Forward Along Three Pathways

• Wide discussion among the scientific community
  North and South regarding key questions,
  appropriate interdisciplinary and disciplinary
  methodologies, and institutional needs.
• Science must be connected to the political agenda
  for sustainable development.
• Research must be focused on the character of
  nature-society interactions, on our ability to
  guide those interactions along sustainable
  trajectories, and on ways of promoting the social
  learning that will be necessary to navigate the
  transition to sustainability.